Valentine's Day 2017

Brandon had class on Valentine's Day, so we couldn't do much. I prepared a themed meal - his favorite - chicken parmesan and white chocolate-dipped strawberries.

He brought me my favorite flowers, tulips.

That weekend, we celebrated by heading to Chicago for a night. He got a great rate on a room at the Ritz-Carlton, thanks to his military discount, so we lived it up in our 5-star digs. I was excited to use my new overnight bag, which Brandon had gotten for me for Christmas.

On the way to Chicago, we stopped for lunch at Portillo's - my first time!

How cute is this Valentine?

It was unseasonably warm for February - my favorite kind of weather! The night we got there, we walked the waterfront, enjoying the gorgeous cotton candy sky.

Dinner was at Lou Malnati's - a restaurant famous for deep dish. It was a long wait, but it was SO good!

When we got back to the hotel, they had turned down the covers, set out the TV remote, and left us chocolates. Equal parts creepy and delightful.

The next morning, I got up early to watch the sun rise over the lake. We found a ward nearby to go to church (they were meeting temporarily in a school, which was kind of fun), and then headed home. It was a wonderful quick trip with my love.

January 2017

Pretty soon after we moved into the ward, I got called to the Young Women presidency as the second counselor. We had an activity every Wednesday, ranging from learning life skills to just having fun! One night we did a Nerf war in the gym, followed by a surprise silly string attack for Savanaa, our newest Beehive.

My parents had a rental house they were fixing up to sell, so one Saturday I went down with Brandon to help. It was so much fun to work with my parents - I mostly stripped wallpaper, and Brandon worked on demo-ing a bathroom and the kitchen.

Young Women pizza fundraiser prep with Greenwood First Ward young women.

Post-Christmas Fun

The two weeks I get off for winter break are the best! I love that week in between Christmas and New Year's when there's time off and lots of family in town.

We spent some time at my parents' house and Jackson painted the new dinosaurs he got for Christmas.

It's also Brandon's birthday! His birthday is New Year's Day so this year it was a Sunday. On Friday night, we went to Olive Garden (his favorite), then Saturday we had a good breakfast, a skating party and games and food with my family, then church, cheesecake, and football on Sunday. He's my favorite thing to celebrate!

Since Micah and Dominika were in town, we also met for a girls' night at Repeal in downtown Indy. 

Adelina had been so grumpy and ornery the whole time they were in town - she didn't want anyone other than her parents, and it was so sad. I missed the sweet girl I'd gotten so close to! What we learned, though, was that she was so much nicer and accepting of others when her parents weren't around. So before they left town, Thomas brought her to our house and visited one evening without her parents. Thomas, Brandon, and I played games and Adelina and Jackson played on the couch. She was so sweet and it made it so much harder to say goodbye!